Greetings! My Spanish teacher will find this a fun fact: My 21st great grandmother is Dª. Inés Alfonsa Alfonso de Ayala, señora de Malpica, born in 1338
Castilla, La Mancha, Toledo, Spain. So if you are of a Spanish background, we are direct cousins and quite likely have this particular relative in common. It is also likely there are more connections that are closer in time but to simply know that there is at least a small length of “DNA cotton” that can be seen with the naked eye that comes from a common female relative in each of us is astounding to me.
I found it by triangulating. I don’t know if this is a technique that is used but I am doing it, following a rational and logical process of making very large triangles using the mitochrondrial DNA haplocode (genome group) of a DNA traced relative, in this case “A2″, which shows up only in TWO _VERY DISTANT_ DNA cousins, a mother and son, out of 12,000 cousin matches.
I use the A2 (which is also commonly found in Hispanic American and African Americans) and look at random individuals who also are A2.
Despite the fact that there does not SEEM to be any connection between my mtDNA haplogroup and my far away cousin (J2a1a1a and A2), NEVERTHELESS there is.
It is this that is worth celebrating:
Dª. Inés Alfonsa Alfonso de Ayala, señora de Malpica, born in 1338 had a full set of DNA. She had children, amongst whom her DNA was distributed. It was then distributed a bit more and a bit more until finally we reach today.
Her DNA continues to live. I am using some of her DNA. Any person with any relation to her is also using some of her DNA.
I’ve written code that has been used and reused for a long time by others. The longest stretch is about 11 years and I was absent for the last 9 of those years.
But I never produced code that is still running 681 years later.
I honor the code running in you and you who is more than the sum of your code.
https://www.geni.com/people/D%C2%AA-In%C3%A9s-Alfonso-de-Ayala-se%C3%B1ora-de-Malpica/6000000012907516642?fbclid=IwAR0zjR9fPSfJhc_z4VM4LkdQ1Vva3Hyg_iIDzFvXYbg5TN1JEvv0Rcq9xgM